http://sodalug.net "To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies." ~Scott Martin Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:29:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As always, Cross Country Cycle has the complete list of Michigan mountain biking events. Lots of decisions to make.  The holidays are upon us so that means time to get training again as soon as all the Christmas cookies are eaten. Looking at the schedule I think I'll probably hit a couple ... http://sodalug.net/2010-planning Well my second Iceman has come and gone.  I missed last year due to the infamous lottery.  This year was starting to look like a disaster in the making after the online registration debacle.  After letting in everyone who mailed in an entry, the race was at over 4,000 riders, ... http://sodalug.net/race-report-2009-iceman Postponed twice, with the third date conflicting with a personal engagement, it seemed fate did not want me to complete my first 6-hour race.  Then at the last moment - a cancellation freeing up my Saturday for bike racing!  So with virtually no prep time, I committed to doing my ... http://sodalug.net/race-report-6-hours-of-addison-oaks 2008 time 1:09:01 2009 time 1:09:49 (course is .5 mile longer this year) Ever feel like you're just not making any progress?  To be fair I wasn't well prepared this year, I didn't ride at all the week preceding, and hadn't ridden the trail since they did some extensive rerouting.  I drank ... http://sodalug.net/race-report-stony-creek-tt-2009 I love riding the Poto, it is by far the best trail in the entire southern LP.  It just always seems like something goes wrong there.  I've locked my keys in my car.  No matter how perfectly my derailer is tuned at the start of the ride, it always stop ... http://sodalug.net/loving-and-hating-the-poto One of the most critical concepts in Austrian Economics is that of capital malinvestment.  This occurs whenever a firm makes an investment in future business that fails to pay off as originally expected.  Obviously this happens all the time, people and firms are not perfect and naturally make mistakes.  Also ... http://sodalug.net/malinvestment I have raced the innaugural Yankee TT three years in a row now, and the first two years had nearly perfect weather for April in Michigan.  I guess we were due for a less than perfect day.  Conditions were on the cool side at about 50 degrees, low wind, and ... http://sodalug.net/race-report-yankee-springs-tt-2009 Right now, a lot of people are rightfully freaked out about the economy.  Mainly, they are confused because they don't really understand why things are happening or what to do about it.  If you are the type given to believing in conspiracy theories, you think this ignorance is intentional.  Intentional ... http://sodalug.net/econ-101 I just recently finished building my winter project bike: a Sette Reken aluminum hardtail.  While my full suspension bike was certainly plush by comparison, I never got used to the tail bobbing of the rear suspension.  Plus the bike had some issues I could just never quite solve, so I ... http://sodalug.net/my-new-hardtail Rand was right.  A refreshing glimmer of hope. I read today that Ayn Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged is once again climbing the sales charts as people rediscover the novel's prophetic description of a world brought to the brink of destruction by government control.  The affordable paperback currently sits at #44 ... http://sodalug.net/economy-tanks-atlas-rallies